Dec. 13, 2017
08:10 am JST

Dec. 13, 2017
08:35 am JST

You literally can't like people if they're not people. Robots have nothing to do with making a little connection and liking a people. This is why people think Japan is weird, so they'll just reinforce that. Sigh

Dec. 13, 2017
09:47 am JST

Dec. 13, 2017
10:02 am JST

It'd be cool to have them in toilets - y'know, brushing up to you at a urinal or squeezing in with you to a stall, unblinking expressionless eyes always monitoring, perhaps occasionally giving advice. Given the complexity of Toto toilets, it might come in handy. That'd be really cool.

Dec. 13, 2017
01:24 pm JST

'Scatter'brained waste of money... It would cost less and be more beneficial for Japan and visitors to hire Japanese language students as cultural envoys. (My personal 'fluffy cat mascot' was a wretched stray in Tokyo, but is now a spoiled indoor cat in Vancouver!)

Dec. 13, 2017
02:07 pm JST

I realize that as a foreigner I have no input into this ... idea, but when I’m in an airport and frazzled from travel and have a problem, I want to speak to, yell at, complain to, another human being; not a piece of plastic. Odd, I know, that I need human communication but, well, I’m a foreigner afterall.

Dec. 13, 2017
05:11 pm JST

The one thing that annoys me more than any thing about my country (the UK) is the lack of human intervention, i.e. blinking robots, we have automatic banks, you put you money in a machine, banks are getting rid of humans and replacing them with machines, petrol stations card payment at the machine, this list can go on, but the biggest annoyance is the mobile phone! a large percentage of people have ear plugs in listening to music or what ever, but inso doing this they have switched off from the real world and don't communicate, theres even sex robotic dolls! in the case of the air ports, why don't they offer part time or full time to students who are learning a foreign language? you can't beat a hands on direct communication with a native speaker, the students would 1; get paid, 2; get vital experience 3; the air port would not have to spend money on this tech robots, 4; what about employing senior citizens who seek a foreign language to help out at the airports? If i have come off a long flight and feeling a bit frazzled the last thing I would not want to do is try and communicate with a heartless, soulless, cold, plastic robot, with a synthesised voice, like Pro Steven Hawkins, but I am sure that if a nice young lady approached me and said "good morning how can I help" its just so much better. my advice would to the airport, ditch the tech, get humans!

Dec. 13, 2017
08:15 pm JST

Dec. 13, 2017
11:52 pm JST

If the UX is no better than that of the smartphone most people carry, there is no point to having these "helpers." It seems gimmicky and someone will be lining their pockets on yet another poorly thought out plan. Here's an idea: save the money, spend it on teaching your staff various languages and pull Japan in line with most of the other modern countries in the world.